Donald Trump Crosses Red State Red Line
Erick Erickson has disinvited Donald Trump from the RedState Gathering. What finally pushed him over the edge?
Erick Erickson has disinvited Donald Trump from the RedState Gathering. What finally pushed him over the edge?
As much as I do personally like Donald Trump, his comment about Megyn Kelly on CNN is a bridge too far for me.
In a CNN interview, Mr. Trump said of Megyn Kelly, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.”
It was not the “blood coming out of her eyes” part that was the problem.
I think there is no way to otherwise interpret Mr. Trump’s comment. In an attempted clarification, Mr. Trump’s team tells me he meant “whatever”, not “where ever.”
[…]
I think that is true. And I’ve been very sympathetic to Donald Trump because so many of the people who have led the party astray refuse to even treat him as a legitimate candidate.
But I also think that while Mr. Trump resonates with a lot of people with his bluntness, including me to a degree, there are just real lines of decency a person running for President should not cross.
His comment was inappropriate. It is unfortunate to have to disinvite him. But I just don’t want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal. It just was wrong.
I agree that this is an immature, insulting comment coming from a man who’s being taken seriously as a contender for the presidency of the United States. But this is Donald Trump we’re talking about. He’s made way worse comments about women before—indeed, that was the focus of one of Kelly’s questions at the debate—and doubled down on them in the debate itself. Vox’s Libby Nelson and WaPo’s Carlos Lozada round up some of the highlights, almost all of which are worse than implying a reporter’s hostile questions are a result of cyclical hormonal fluctuation. Aside from the fact that Kelly is an attractive, conservative woman and the other targets aren’t, there’s no reason this particular act of douchbaggery trumps the others.
Erick Erickson is a liberal now.. Yes…… :)))
Wanting to ban all abortions? Not misogynist. Not too far. Insult a Popular Girl with nice blond hair? Too far.
Hahahahahah the hypocrisies and prissy chivalry of patriarchal subcultures.
Erickson’s views aren’t precisely copacetic with being a gentleman either. It’s not the pot calling the kettle black, it’s the casserole dish saying the pot is but a lowly kitchen tool while it (the casserole dish) is a presentation piece.
Hmm. That metaphor got away from me, but I’m sticking with it.
It was clear from the first question that Roger Ailes had dispatched his boys and gal to take him out, and Donald had really little choice but to declare war. Trying to suck up to them would have been fruitless, showing weakness poor tactics, so all that’s left is “Let’s rock…”
He does have a skill-set for a certain sort of hostile negotiation. If the others had been as aware they would have been looking for and pounced on the opportunity to white-knight that uncouth ruffian “to the moon” for attacking the fair damsel Megyn.
It’s on between The Roger and The Donald. Popcorn, beer, and may the best honey badger win…
I think the other candidates on the stage missed a chance to swing at Trump. I don’t know whether that is due to cowardice or lack of thinking on the feet; however, when Trump rambled on about political correctness, one of them should have said something like: No, Donald, what you said is not about political correctness, it is you being a classless pig. There is a difference and it is telling that you and the audience can’t tell the difference.
I think the candidate who said that would’ve come out a hero.
@Scott: The Megan actually has a good article comparing the support she’s seeing for The Donald as equivalent to what was being generated by the RonPaulbots clambering all over the Net. A lot of heat and illogical sputtering, but not much in the way of actual thought.
The comments of the Trumpions littering the thread do nothing to disprove her conclusions.
I was musing whether there was anything that Trump could say that was a Bridge Too Far for the Conservative Media Tycoons. Is this as case of “you’re being mean picking on a friend of mine!” or simply the normal traditional male squeamishness when confronted with anything to do with women’s periods?
P.S. I remember chatting with my college roommate once (heck, we weren’t even being GRAPHIC) on this very topic and sending a male friend reeling out of the room with an extremely green face.
@grumpy realist:
“Is this as case of “you’re being mean picking on a friend of mine!” or simply the normal traditional male squeamishness when confronted with anything to do with women’s periods?”
This is a founder of RedState we are talking about. That’s a site which in the “good old days” believed that the proper punishment for a comment straying from the party line is to pretend to shoot the commenter. They get zero sympathy from me and this is clearly being done because the line Trump crossed was to attack a person on their side of the partisan divide.
Trump didn’t cross any Red State line. Someone paid Erick son of Erick enough.
But I’m happy with anything that makes it more likely that the narcissist Trump decides to run as a third party candidate.
Just got reminded on twitter by Oliver Willis that Erickson thought it was appropriate to call Justice Souter a “goat f*cking child molester”.
This has nothing to do with red lines.
The Trump campaign’s response:
It’s like he can’t resist.
This is how you deal with a guy like Trump. You kowtow to him, or you endure his flair with adjectives.
A quarter of Republican voters want to put a guy like that in the White House.
@PJ:
@grumpy realist:
Dadgummit, you two got here ahead of me. Good on y’all!
I would only point out that Mr Erickson is at present a seminarian in the ‘Reformed-Reformed’ tradition and before too long will be Reverend Erickson.
This is the “establishment” moving to kill The Donald.
Geez, I’m almost full on popcorn already. How many more months of this do we have left?
Surely even the Red State base sees through this (and the comment section there suggests that they do). I mean, if Trump had said this about Hillary Clinton, they all would have been cued to laugh and applaud.
@ElizaJane: if anyone had made such a comment about Hillary I hope she explains to them extremely sorrowfully and with much tut-tutting and shaking of her head about the other person’s lack of knowledge about biology ALL the facts about the female menstrual cycle and menopause. Ending up with the helpful comment that it’s when are said to suffer PMS that their hormone levels are closest to those of guys, so when you accuse a woman of suffering from PMS what you are really doing is accusing her of acting like a man…
@Grumpy Realist: Sure, just like during her last run for the presidency when the PMS comment was made about her by (surprise) a guest on Fox who (surprise) was in no way taken to task for said comment.
In 2007-8, the rank misogyny unleashed on Hillary was repugnant. It took the right much longer (like, until he won) to find acceptable ways to be racist about Obama; that was still a little uncool, but you could say anything about a woman and it was just good humor.
Open war in the Republican Party? Yes, and it doesn’t even involve the Tea Party. Trump will never pay a political or personal price for being himself. This is his brand, and his brand is more popular than the Republican brand.
Once they realize this, they’ll co-opt him and he’ll show them how to win. Maybe not political office, but he’ll show them how to energize the electorate and dominate the news cycle.
Trump has lost big business deals due to his Presidential ambitions, whether they are sincere or not. That and his narcissism is going to equal hell of an headache for the GOP.
Why would he back down? He’s leading and now Fox News is doing everything to tear him down. His ego is going postal.
Fox News, the propaganda arm of the GOP (or GOP is the political arm of Fox News…), isn’t going to be able to offer him anything to silence him after his.
Erickson is a Fox News contributor, so I would assume he is about to get a pay rise, more airtime, or both, or Fox News just threatened to can him if he didn’t march in line.
Did Erickson stand up for Rosie O’Donnell or against the misogyny thrown at Hillary Clinton?
Again, red line, my ass.
Erickson wants to join the “respectable establishment GOP” and this is just another attempt.
He doesn’t care if a third of his readers are dismayed by this. Their usefulness has come and gone now and he’s moving on to more profitable horizons.
Is it a red line because it’s about menstrual fluid?
About the only thing I can say about all of this is
MOAR POPCORN!
P.S. I think this last round of insults is the point where we realize that, indeed, the tiger has swallowed the Republican Party.
Erickson’s of a piece with Trump when it comes to women.
@Tillman: No, that was good. Keep it!
@Scott: Alas, in the dark nights of their souls, they couldn’t find those words to say because they don’t have them available. Note how many of them also jumped on the PC bandwagon after Trump fired it up.
There have also been rumors (days before this) that Erickson is leaving Red State.
@JohnMcC: A religious body is going to ordain this whack job? Talk about a bridge too far!
@Tillman:
an example of Erickson being gentlemanly to Megyn Kendall (as she was then)
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/05/31/foxs-megyn-kelly-tears-into-fox-colleagues-over/194296
@charon:
So maybe just a pretext to keep Trump away, I think.
It is rather amusing that anyone on the right would be getting the vapors about this considering what they will be unleashing on Hillary in the general election…
Why isn’t Megyn Kelly running for office? She is really going to waste as a newsreader, when there is grifting to be grifted.
She could out-Palin Palin. A few years as governor somewhere, and then a run for the White House. Or skip the few years as a governor thing and just jump in now. She could undermine Trump for the role of unqualified candidate, just as Trump eclipsed Ben Carson.
Well, it’s beginning to look like “true” conservatives are not amused by Trump’s foray into the GOP spotlight? What Trump lacks in authenticity he makes up for in a lack of thoughtfulness. I think he’s peaked too soon, I hope not, this is great entertainment value.
@Scott: “I think the candidate who said that would’ve come out a hero.”
In other words, a candidate with integrity, standards and moral courage.
@Moosebreath: “This is a founder of RedState we are talking about. That’s a site which in the “good old days” believed that the proper punishment for a comment straying from the party line is to pretend to shoot the commenter. They get zero sympathy from me and this is clearly being done because the line Trump crossed was to attack a person on their side of the partisan divide.”
Adding on here – James, Erick is a misogynistic SOB. Trump didn’t cross a moral line of Eric, because he doesn’t have any. Erick is simply realizing that Trump is bad for the GOP.
@An Interested Party: “It is rather amusing that anyone on the right would be getting the vapors about this considering what they will be unleashing on Hillary in the general election…”
The right is heavily into Freudian projection.